Wealthy cities in the Pasadena area continue to thrive while working-class cities around Whittier and the eastern San Gabriel Valley see drops in property tax revenues, according to figures released by the county.

As one of the first indicators of how the financial crisis will affect city budgets, the county released to cities a 40 percent advance on expected property tax payments for the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

Of the 32 area cities that Friday received early payments from the county, 19 saw tax receipts go down compared with last year.

Overall, property tax receipts were slightly less than projected by city finance directors, a decrease that could cause more cuts in cities that already laid off police officers, froze wages and cut library hours.

"We were expecting it to be relatively flat," West Covina Deputy City Manager Chris Freeland said. "A decrease, of course, is going to have some impact."

Some of the area's already hard-hit, blue-collar towns saw the biggest drops.

Whittier, West Covina, La Mirada, Industry, Pico Rivera and La Verne all saw drops of at least 3 percent, according to the report.

But San Marino, Arcadia, Bradbury, Alhambra, and South Pasadena were among cities that collected more property tax so far this fiscal year.

In the average city, property taxes make up about 11 percent of city budgets, according to the California League of Cities. But that figure varies wildly from city to city. Glendora, for instance, gets 37 percent of its general fund income from property tax, officials said.

Even finance directors who projected decreases missed their targets.

"It's worse than what we projected," said Rod Hill, Whittier's finance director.

The finance chief in Glendora said the city was "treading water," and that he hoped numbers did not continue to drop.

"The concern going into next year is to see where assessed values go," Glendora Finance Director Josh Betta.

The drop is mostly due to landowners reassessing their properties, which allows them to pay less in taxes.

The number of requests for reassessment jumped in 2008 and is continuing to rise this year, said Robert Quon, the county's assistant assessor.

Property taxes historically go up every year, and cities see them as one of the most stable money sources, experts said.

In San Marino, taxes so far are up 2 percent from last year and are up 9 percent from the year before, Finance Director Lisa Bailey said.

"We budgeted it to be up 3 percent and I don't expect to make that. In that sense, it's a little lower than expected, but I still feel we're pretty darn fortunate," Bailey said. "It's our biggest source of income and it holds very well compared to other sources."

Property taxes make up 74 percent of San Marino's budget, she added.

"We just have a really strong history of holding property values because of the level of maintenance," Bailey said. "People take pride in their homes. It's just that's what people value in this city."

Now cities dealing with sagging sales tax revenue will have to readjust budgets.

In Whittier, the city has lost several car dealerships and taxes are down 20 percent compared to last year, according to Hill.